Crossing the Rubicon: Phillies 6, Pirates 2

(Note: All credit for tonight’s recap title and the sentence below goes to the great RememberThePhitans.)

Emperor Klentak surveyed the City of Rome lying in waste before him, sacked, as citizens cried out, "How shall we rebuild, Emperor?" Klentak calmly replied to the cries of the hopeless: "Brick by brick, citizens. Brick by brick."

We may not be getting a look at JP Crawford or Nick Williams this September, but the Phillies are rebuilding, and we’re seeing them lay each brick in place. This is the kind of win I can get behind. Good pitching, timely hitting, and young guys doing their thing.

The best part of this is obviously the young guys doing their thing, and so I’ll talk about the young guy that everyone wants to hear about: Roman Quinn. It was a big, big night for Quinn in his second MLB game ever. He stole his very first major league base, got his first major league hit (a double!), and got his second one (also a double!). He also notched his first two big league RBIs. Mackanin has said that they’re going to play him a lot, and I could not be more thrilled.

More young guys: Odubel Herrera went two-for-three with a walk, and we can all hope he’s starting to regain his form. He’s hit just .247 since the All-Star break, but I’m sure he’d like to finish the season strong. I know that’s what I want. Freddy Galvis, who has been on this team since the beginning of time and probably shouldn’t be called a young guy anymore, hit a solo homer in the second inning. I was absolutely floored when I saw it was his 18th homer of the year. 18! For a Phillies shortstop! For context, before 2016 the most homers that Galvis has hit in a season is 7, and he did that in 151 games last year.

Oh, the pitching last night was glorious, too. Jeremy Hellickson, God bless him, went 6 ¹⁄₃ innings, and he allowed just three hits and one run. [cue choirs of angels singing] He was followed by Edubray Ramos, who finished off the seventh inning hitless. Hector Neris was next, and he was superb, allowing no hits, no walks, and notching a strikeout. Jeanmar Gomez finished out the game, and though he allowed two hits and a run, the Pirates would have had to score four more to tie, and five to win. So who cares!

The Phillies have still lost 10 of their last 14, but winning this game means that it’s not 11 of 14. I’ll take the little victories where I can find them.

I’m slightly torn here. The Pirates being in the Wild Card makes me happy, because they’re such a hard luck franchise. And they could kick out another team that I don’t like, the Cardinals or the Giants, perhaps. But I also want the Phillies to win, because I’m so very, very tired of them losing feebly. A win like this one, decisive and slightly powerful, at least means that I or one of the many talented TGP writers don’t have to write about them losing yet again.

That’s a fancy way of saying that I’m at peace with whatever happens with the Phillies between now and the end of the season. Win, lose, or some other third category that hasn’t been invented yet.